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There are estimates of over 30 million regular users in the USA. The impact could be two fold on Healthcare. First, the tax of it could go to Healthcare and many who are suffering with various cronic pain would have an alternative from taking synthetic drugs laden with harmful side effects.

I know of someone that suffers with migraine headaches that swears it is the only substance that makes the headaches go away. He buys it from one of his friends that is a CPA and not some back alley drug dealer!

Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery. Calvin Coolidge

I would hate to come to work and have a forklift hit me because the driver smoked up on the way to work just because it's legal. Just because something is legal doesn't mean it's ethical. Yes, I know that you can't legislate morality, but what would be the advantages of legalizing it? Oh, we can collect tax money and some deadbeats would get out of jail. Great. Guess what folks, some things are more important than money! Condoning the behavior WILL make more people do it, especially people who aren't mature enough to make decisions based on what is good and bad for them or their future. It's already hard enough to raise good kids in our culture and this won't make it any easier.

Article [I.]
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Article [II.]
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

I would hate to come to work and have a forklift hit me because the driver smoked up on the way to work just because it's legal. Just because something is legal doesn't mean it's ethical. Yes, I know that you can't legislate morality, but what would be the advantages of legalizing it? Oh, we can collect tax money and some deadbeats would get out of jail. Great. Guess what folks, some things are more important than money! Condoning the behavior WILL make more people do it, especially people who aren't mature enough to make decisions based on what is good and bad for them or their future. It's already hard enough to raise good kids in our culture and this won't make it any easier.

I'm only 23...when I was 17 it was far easier to find a place to buy pot than it was to find someone to buy me liquor at the store. Also, the driver who hit you with the forklift was drunk. Or he was on his cell phone. Now what? Making it legal won't even change who smokes it. The guy driving the forklift was high last week before it was legal too. You treat it the same as alcohol.
Here is a post I c/p from someone else from somewhere else. It isn't a couple deadbeats.

As many of you know, this November California voters will be voting on whether to fully legalize and regulate marijuana. I and many people I know are in full support of such legislation across the country, so I thought I'd go ahead and throw together a cost/benefit analysis of legalization for skeptics

Here we go:

1 in 3 people over 18 have tried marijuana at least once.

In 2008, 847,846 people were arrested for marijuana related crimes. To compare - only 594,911 were arrested for violent crimes.

Of those 847,846 arrested, only 11% were trafficking arrests. The other 89% were possession arrests.

1 Person is arrested every 38 seconds for a marijuana related crime.

Based on current estimated state by state marijuana consumption, the federal government could make between $700,000,000 and $1,500,000,000 dollars a year by regulating and taxing marijuana. This does not include state and local taxes.

Instead of making between 700 million and 1.5 billion dollars, the federal government SPENDS $14,100,000,000 dollars every year enforcing marijuana laws.

That's 26,809 dollars per minute or 467 dollars PER SECOND!

These numbers don't include the billions of dollars spent every year to keep marijuana offenders in jail nor do they include lost tax revenue of people kept in jail.

Ask yourself these few questions:

1) Would you rather have the government spending 467 dollars a second on arresting people for possession of a plant? Or would you rather have that 467 dollars a second going to schools, roads or tax cuts?

2) Would you rather have money spent on marijuana going to drug lords or the government?

3) Does it make sense to outlaw a plant that has been scientifically proven to be less harmful that Alcohol?

4) Would it help or hurt America's economy to create a new, multi-billion dollar industry in the United States?

I would hate to come to work and have a forklift hit me because the driver smoked up on the way to work just because it's legal. Just because something is legal doesn't mean it's ethical. Yes, I know that you can't legislate morality, but what would be the advantages of legalizing it? Oh, we can collect tax money and some deadbeats would get out of jail. Great. Guess what folks, some things are more important than money! Condoning the behavior WILL make more people do it, especially people who aren't mature enough to make decisions based on what is good and bad for them or their future. It's already hard enough to raise good kids in our culture and this won't make it any easier.

That's bunk.

Those that want to smoke it are already doing it.

Those that don't, aren't. It IS that simple.

"....especially people who aren't mature enough to make decisions based on what is good or bad for them or their future....."

while I am for the decriminalizing of it, I am not for the regulating and taxing of it.

subroc

Article [I.]
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Article [II.]
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

There are people that don't smoke it because it's bad or because they are told that it is bad. It has a stigma, or a taboo about it. After it is legal for a little while, it will lose that taboo and people who wouldn't have tried it before because it is illegal and 'bad' will now do so, because it has lost it's shock value.

It's all about desensitization, the same as every other moral and ethical problem that we face as a society.

"....especially people who aren't mature enough to make decisions based on what is good or bad for them or their future....."

When I wrote that, I had kids in mind. But I guess we should just let them have free reign and do whatever feels good, regardless of what is good for them. Kinda like legalizing kids 'sexting' in Vermont or where ever it was...

Why do I sometimes wonder what is wrong with our society...it's so clear...